Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF)

The Nepal Youth Foundation (NYF; formerly the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation, NYOF) is devoted to bringing hope to the most destitute children in the beautiful but impoverished Himalayan country of Nepal. With a personal touch, we provide these children with what should be every child's birthright - education, housing, medical care, and loving support. Empowered to reach their potential, these children blossom, enriching the world we all share.

Training for a brighter future

By Jacqueline Frost - Development and Communications Manager

Asmita was a child slave and and now tills a farm

We doubled our outreach efforts last year and introduced our Vocational Education and Career Counseling (VECC) program to 1,292 impoverished young men and women in Nepal, including 1,118 former child slaves (Kamlari).

Of those who attended the orientation sessions, 478 enrolled in long and short term trainings to prepare them for jobs as midwives, computer technicians, cooks, graphic designers, furniture makers, and farmers.

Nearly half of all Nepalis – even those with advanced college degrees – cannot find a job. Yet plumbers and electricians are often recruited from neighboring countries because most young people in Nepal lack training in these and other skilled jobs.

Unfortunately, vocational counseling and training is severely lacking in Nepal, and without this kind of support many young people languish in unemployment and poverty.

Nepal Youth Foundation’s VECC program provides career counseling and assessment, as well as short and long term vocational training programs. VECC staff work with each student to help them decide whether to pursue higher education or vocational training for a particular career path. Our staff has conducted extensive research throughout Nepal to identify vocational courses that provide high quality training and have proven success in placing young people in satisfying jobs.

VECC staff then identifies the best training program for each student's chosen field, pays for the cost of training, and helps them to find jobs. In some cases, VECC provides graduates with support for starting a small business of their own. More than 80 percent of our graduates are now employed!

We also offered preparatory classes for the freed Kamlari girls to help them pass the entrance examination for some of the highly sought-after technical training programs. As a result, 51 of 133 girls who took the classes passed the entrance exam and enrolled in the program.

Thanks in large part to the generosity of our supporters, the VECC program is proving to be a highly effective means of putting impoverished youth on a track for life-long success.

Asmita was sent away from her family and spent five years of her childhood working as a Kamlari indentured servant before NYF rescued her in 2004. After high school, we sponsored Asmita in an agricultural training program, and then she started her own farm with a loan from the freed Kamlari business co-op. Now Asmita tills the fields with her family by her side. She's also trained 40 other former Kamlari in farming to help ensure their independence.

Renu learned a trade and is studying for a college degree. Bright and hardworking, she received an NYF scholarship and finished high school, passing the SLC exam. Renu then completed the 18-month Auxiliary Nurse Midwife training program and now earns 15,000 rupees ($150) a month (good money in this impoverished country) helping to deliver babies at a small clinic in Western Nepal. But Renu still has larger ambitions, and so she continues in college working towards a bachelor’s degree.

Thank you for giving young women like Asmita and Renu a chance for a brighter future.

Caring for Nepal's most vulnerable children

By Jacqueline Frost - Development and Communications Manager

A mother and son at New Life Center

At the New Life Center in Kathmandu, 102 HIV-infected children last year received not only treatment and medical care, but also psychological counseling and an appropriate diet. Center staff also took the children on outings and celebrated holidays and festivals to make certain that joy was a part of their lives.

While 66 children were returned home in stable health, readmission can be very high because the children’s health often deteriorates rapidly once they return to homes without appropriate living conditions or nutritious food.

To help families take care of their children, counselors educate mothers and caretakers in a series of 48 sessions on nutrition and reproductive health. They also offer guidance on caring for their infected children once they returned home.

This comprehensive care model is a key to the Center’s success. Most children arrive with full-blown AIDS, including illnesses such as tuberculosis, malnutrition, and hepatitis, and return home with only HIV, ready to go to school and enjoy a happy childhood. If kids with HIV live hygienically, eat a nutritious diet, and try to avoid infections, they can typically expect to lead full and meaningful lives for around 25 years. By that time, it’s likely that additional treatments will be available to extend their lives even further. Most of the children don’t even need to take anti-retroviral drugs, which are difficult for people in rural and remote areas to obtain.

Staff strives to find innovative ways to improve the livelihoods of their patients. For example, they planted a small vegetable garden and formed a partnership with Heifer International which contributed a few cows. These provide nutritious organic vegetables and fresh milk to the mothers and children at the Center.

Counseling center offers children a refuge

By Jacqueline Frost - Development and Communications Manager

Counselors launch an anti-bullying campaign

Even when the Nepal Youth Foundation is able to rescue a child from hunger and want, it is not always as easy to free that child from the nightmares that remain in the wake of harsh trauma, domestic violence and extreme poverty these children have endured.

Ankur Counseling Center (ACC) was established in 2006 as a place to give the children of NYF the psychological counseling needed to recover their mental health as they are being restored to physically healthy, happy lives in NYF's other programs.

Last year, NYF counselors reached 2,111 children and youth through individual and group counseling, home visits and peer counseling. We are also providing psychological services to children outside our programs.

The only such center in Nepal, counselors help children with time management, memory enhancement, relationship building, and dealing with strong emotions, building trust, and strategies for coping with stress.

Ankur staff also provides training for people who work with and for children. Last year, 234 people attended workshops covering topics ranging from parenting skills to bullying.